Students start blue ribbon anti-smoking campaign

Some Burlington students are taking their health concerns to the streets.

A group of students from Edmunds and Hunt Middle Schools hit the Church Street Marketplace with their anti-smoking ribbon campaign.

With cheers, shouts and the general flair and enthusiasm you'd expect from middle school students, the blue ribbon campaign gets underway.

But it's excitement on a topic you might not anticipate from the young group.

“We're going around Church Street and putting ribbons that state things and reasons why you shouldn't smoke,” sixth-grader Sabrina Redzic said.

Their anti-smoking messages were wrapped up in bows along the Church Street Marketplace.

The school's Vermont Kids Against Tobacco, or VKAT, adviser Angela Halsted said smoking sentiments are changing with the younger generation.

“It's becoming popular to be against smoking. So when one student joins they get other students to join and it just spreads throughout the school. We've got so many kids now that are participating, which is awesome. So it's become like a cool thing to do,” Halsted explained.

In an attempt to protect children and other people on the marketplace from second hand smoke, Burlington city councilors voted to ban smoking on the marketplace last year. However, former mayor Bob Kiss never signed off on it.

“That'd be a really good idea because there's people walking around with their kids and they don't need the second hand smoke,” sixth-grade student Luwize Ndihokuvwayo said.

The students know it's unlikely their messages will convince everyone to quit smoking, but they say even if just one person quits, it's worth it.

“If they didn't know it's as terrible as it is than they might be peer pressured into it,” sixth-grader Maddi Evans said.

“I think that they think oh I can smoke it's not too bad, but it actually is because it can cause lung cancer, you can die from it,” eighth-grader Amber Groves added.

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